Standardization of modified allergens using polymerized ragweed as a model system

Polymerized allergens are manufactured by crosslinking allergen molecules with glutaraldehyde and then selecting a desired molecular weight range by gel filtration chromatography. Polymerized allergen extracts have retained antigenicity but reduced allergenicity when compared with conventional allergenic extracts. Thus, the important parameters to standardize in polymerized extracts are allergenicity, antigenicity, and molecular weight range. As our initial studies have demonstrated that allergenicity correlates with antigenicity and molecular weight, only the latter are necessary to measure. In short, polymerized allergen extracts could be standardized simply in terms of in vitro reactivity and chromatographic profile.